Hit by six bullets in the chest and abdomen, he died instantly. The journalist Orlando “Dondon” Dinoy was attacked by an armed individual on the evening of October 30 at his home in Bansalan, in the province of Davao del Sur, in the south of the Philippine archipelago. His killer first called him from the street to ask him to leave his apartment; after firing the first two shots, the assailant pursued his victim into his home, where the journalist had taken refuge.
Report for the regional information portal Newsline Philippines, and presenter of a program on the radio Energy FM, Orlando Dinoy covered local news, focusing on development issues and news stories, according to a statement published by the editor-in-chief of Newsline Philippines, Editha Z. Caduaya.
Savagery and premeditation
“The murder of Orlando Dinoy is all the more shocking because it was perpetrated with bloodthirsty savagery and, at the same time, obvious premeditation., notes the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific office, Daniel Bastard. In this context, it is crucial to identify as quickly as possible the clues allowing to find the culprits and, in particular, the elements which can nourish the hypothesis of an assassination in connection with the journalistic activities of the victim.
The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), the national agency tasked with investigating such cases, says in a press release published on October 31 that “investigators [de la police] already have strong leads regarding the perpetrator of the murder”. Contacted on November 2 by RSF, the PTFoMS could not say more about the preferred hypothesis.
If the presumption of an assassination related to his professional activity were validated, Orlando Dinoy would be the 21st journalist assassinated for his work since the arrival in power of the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, in 2016.
The Philippines currently ranks 138th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.